GLEN Johnson is a much improved footballer.
He’s always had talent. Chelsea snapped him up as a youngster for £6m from West Ham as the first signing of the Abramovich era way back in 2003. Even in his early Chelsea days he showed attacking talent and athleticism, all be it with defensive lapses and errors. Jose Mourinho considered him surplus to requirements but the former West Ham man successfully rebuilt his career at Portsmouth where his swashbuckling forays forward caused enough havoc in enough opposition defences for Rafa Benitez to pay £17m for him – a sizeable amount for a defender even in 2009.
Glen replaced the less heralded Alvaro Arbeloa, as Rafa explained he wanted his fullbacks to provide more width and attacking impetus. The change didn’t work. With other important players leaving the team Liverpool were weaker and Johnson’s defensive weaknesses came to the fore as poor clearances, positional play and tackling contrasted strongly with the undemonstratively calm defending of Arbeloa.
The fact that Alvaro has since been a virtual ever present for Real Madrid, and invariably plays all the big games, seemed to just highlight Johnson’s deficiencies. Yet Glen Johnson still had a lot to offer. He had excellent pace, good strength and stamina, good touch, technically strong on both feet, able to beat a man and cross effectively.
In the past he has also been somewhat sensitive to criticism, perhaps a trait that was holding him back. He had a spat with Paul Merson after the Sky Sports pundit claimed he couldn’t defend. And also a spat with his then Liverpool, and now England, manager after Roy Hodgson told media that Glen wasn’t living up to his reputation.
This season though he has put his past travails mostly behind him. He isn’t infallible defensively, but has made less mistakes than the likes of Skrtel, Agger and Enrique, while offering an important attacking outlet with better end product. His flexibility to play effectively at left-back also helped the side when injuries crocked Enrique, Kelly and Flanagan, allowing the right footed Andre Wisdom to get a run in the side at right-back.
He’s also put his tiff with Hodgson behind him as the England manager has consistently picked him as his first choice ahead of Kyle Walker and the now almost forgotten Micah Richards. This is easily Glen’s best campaign and he has been one of our most consistent players all season.
One attribute that seems to set Johnson apart from your normal footballer is his interest in more intellectual pursuits Since purchasing a house in Spain he has been studying Spanish and recently spoke of how it helps him mix with the Spanish speakers amongst the squad.
“I can get involved with the Spanish group so I guess it helps me out because I can mingle with pretty much everybody. Coutinho can speak a bit of Spanish as well; the lads that can’t speak English can generally speak Spanish so we get by.”
More interesting, and far harder, has been Glen’s studying for a maths degree. Degrees are hard enough work full time, but to do one part-time while also in the high pressure environment of Premier League and International football is a big commitment. When this story first broke earlier in the season I was very impressed but couldn’t help but be a touch apprehensive of whether his performances would suffer.
Complex maths is not most people’s idea of relaxation. But with the season nearly over it would seem that focusing on a personal goal outside of football has perhaps helped him on it. May be an interview he gave back in December hints at the aspect of Johnson’s personality that has allowed him to embrace two very different vocations, as he explained a tattoo above his left wrist which reads: “Tell me I can’t and I will show you I can.”
“My teachers at school used to say ‘you ain’t going to do anything, you ain’t going to achieve anything’. So I was thinking ‘I’ll show you’.”
“Now the last thing they’d be expecting me to do is a maths degree but then until they saw me become a footballer they thought I couldn’t do that either.”
It seems he can do both.
You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/
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Maybe that tattoo on Glens left wrist refers to the B&Q toilet seat incident whilst a Pompey Player.
A member of B&Q staff (Probably an OAP in a orange sweatshirt) spotted Glen putting a toilet seat into a box with a cheaper price tag. He said “you cant steal that your a premier league footballer on 30 grand a week” to which he replied “Tell me I can’t and I will show you I can.” Then went ahead and did it,but unfortunately was rumbled at the checkout.
i feel kelly is much better at his defensive duties but he should be given a centre back role
Kelly is a better defender, and with time Wisdom will be. But I think both their futures lie centrally. We’ll have to see if Kelly’s pace gas suffered following cruciate injury.
Johnson’s performances in the past few months have not been up to the standard. In fact, after all of these years, he still can’t defend crosses properly – always loses his man. He’s good at going forward but sometimes he does a little bit too much. He’s as consistent as Finnan & Arbeloa were. I like him. But maybe next season Rodgers could give more chance for Kelly to shine.
*He’s not consistent as Finnan & Arbeloa were.
I agree finnan & Arbeloa are more consistent defenders. This has been Johnson ‘s best season, but has still made mistakes. However he’s clearly improved from previous seasons which perhaps indicates his extra curricular studies haven’t hindered him.
Doing something to prove someone wrong… Sounds like a spoilt child. Thats why all his goals have come against former clubs. “Ill show you!” Not good enough attitude to perform when you want. Never make top 4 with players like that. Talented but can’t see that attitude changing. Him, Enrique, Agger, Reina, Sturridge, Downing all perform when they want to. Too many passengers. Only Carra, Kelly, Wisdom, Skrtel, Gerard, Allen, Hendo, Suarez and Coutinho try 100% every match but that isn’t enough talent there. The talent mainly perform when they feel like it. Unless you hav 8-9 talented fighters in a team your not making top 4. Can only carry 1 or 2 players.
johnson is top class , and we are lucky to have him
all our defenders look poor this season under rodgers ridiculous system , rodgers has a habit of making good players look poor
We need to sell Johnson. His job is to defend and he can not do that.
Ive noticed Johnson the last few matches and he is putting to much effort into supporting the wing and always getting caught out hes a weak link and opposition teams are exploiting it.
Johnson is past it. He looks stiff and not agile compared to before. Gets tackled too often. * at defending. Too predictable. There’s no one challenging him for his place. He’s past it. Sell him whilst there’s still ££££ in him
I hope you will not be unduly offended if I say that I disagree with you. I watch all LFC matches in India, being an LFC fan. I have kept a close watch on what Johnson is doing since last 2 seasons. I analyse every goal conceded and check various player rating and match reports on websites as to who is responsible for conceding a particular goal. Everybody knows that a defensive error is responsible for 75% of the goals conceded by any team. However for Johnson I can safely say that he is responsible directly and indirectly for approx 20 goals this season. If this figure was 5 to 7 goals I would have said this is normal for a defender. Based on this I will say he is a defensive liability. I have only counted those goals where he is in the television picture trying to defend or he has made a mistake inside his half and given away the ball cheaply. Defensive positioning is alien to him.
Till last year I thought that Johnson could be a great winger. I used to be impressed by his attacking skills. He attacking prowess has taken a dive this season. In most cases he is taking too much time on the ball. His dribble success percentage has gone down. Mostly in the final third, he somehow manages to hit the defenders legs and give away the ball. Infact if you look at the stats, his percentage of successful crosses is approx. 10 %, half that of any other right back or left back in the league. I watched the 37th match where Rodgers started with a back 3 and he was playing him as as wing back / winger. For the first half Stuart Downing played a great game. When Rodgers changed to a 4-4-2 system, Stuart Downing just disappeared from the game. This because Johnson just advanced too far with the ball in the opposition half and cramped Downing who had to drop back on many occasions. Most of the time he tries to cut in, thereby reducing the width drastically. So any winger who has played on the right appears to have taken a dip in for. I will not hesitate to say that Lucas Lieva is covering Glen Johnson most of the time on the right side and as such has not been as effective as he used to be.